Insulated panel frame



sept. s, 1910 L. w. BLooM ETAI- INSULATED'PANEL FRAME 4 Sheets-Sheet 2Filled Dec. 29, 1967l lNvENiroRs M ma n y S .if n

sept.8,191o I.. w. BLQOM TAL 3.521,011

' IINSULATED PANELFRAME j Filled DBO. 29, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 .F12-E sY M, Lak/@fw Sept. 8, 1970 1 .'w. BLooM- ETL A 3,527,011

INSULATED PANEL FRAME Y Filed Dec. 29, 1967 4 sheets-sheet 4 F.Z'EZE 1INVENTORS 5751? Ah. 800M Y rfa/Parr:

United States Patent O 3,527,011 INSULATED PANEL FRAME Lester W. Bloom,Richfield, and Thomas P. Olson,

Bloomington, Minn., assignors to Cronstroms Manufacturing, Inc.,Minneapolis, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Filed Dec. 29, 1967, Ser.No. 694,711 Int. Cl. E06b 1/32 U.S. Cl. 52-398 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE Insulated panel supporting framing members in which a gutterportion is constructed to be rigidly attached to an opening or aperturein a structure and to sealingly engage a panel, a face member is adaptedto be disposed outside of the gutter member and is also adapted tosealingly engage a panel and one or more thermally insulated connectingblocks are substantially permanently engaged with a portion of thegutter members and removably engaged with a portion of the face membersto support the panel and the face members in a removable predeterminedrelationship whereby the panel members are disposed and sealinglyengaged between the gutter and face members While retaining ormaintaining thermal insulation between the gutter and face members andsimultaneously supporting and retaining the panel members in operativedisposition on a structure.

This invention relates -generally to apparatus for supporting andsealingly engaging panel members to be disposed in or over apertures ina structure and is more particularly directed to novel and improvedapparatus for removably supporting decorative architectural members andsupportively engaging panel members over apertures in a structure whilesimultaneously providing thermal insulation characteristics between theinterior and exterior portions of the structure so as to prevent thetransfer of heat to or from the interior while maintaining structuralintegrity.

In the prior art with which our invention is concerned, the problem ofutilizing materials possessing a high thermal conductivity forsupporting utilitarian or decorative panels in or on the surface of astructure, such as windows and opaque and translucent materials, hasbeen widespread and prevalent. Common materials utilized in suchapplications have included, steel and aluminum, both of which possessthe required structural strength but lack the universally desiredcharacteristics of low thermal conductivity so that in, for example,climates wherein temperatures vary within wide extremes, the problemscreated through the use of such Vmaterials have substantially outweighedthe structural and other characteristics that are gained, for example,over the use of Wood, or the like. Many solutions have been proposed toenable the use of structurally satisfactory materials of high heatconductivity but these have failed in commercial application, due tocost, poor mechanical characteristics, difculty in installation or lackof accessibility from the standpoint of servicing a completed structure.

The present invention is concerned with a panel support frame that iseconomically and easily constructed, easily erected, provides thedesirable insulation to enable the use of structural members of highstrength and high thermal conductivity, provides adequate support t forpanels to be engaged and sealingly supported thereby and which may berapidly and easily assembled or disassembled for replacement of panelsand the like when necessary.

It is therefore an object of our invention to provide ICC a novel andimproved panel supporting apparatus for enclosing apertures in abuilding structure.

A further object of our invention is to provide an improved panel andstructural apparatus for enclosing apertures in a building structurewhich is economical to fabricate and erect.

|Another object of our invention is to provide an improved apparatus forenclosing apertures or covering a building structure which reduces thethermal conductivity factor between the interior and exterior of thestructure to a minimum value.

It is another object of our invention to provide improved apparatus forsupporting and sealingly engaging panels to `be disposed on the exteriorof a building structure which is economically and easily erected andreadily and easily disassembled for the replacement of panels or thelike.

These and other objects of our invention will become apparent from aconsideration of the appended specification, claims and drawings, inWhich- FIG. l is an outside front elevational view of apparatusembodying the principles of our invention enclosing and supportingsuitable panel members in the form of transparent glass, in an aperturein a building structure;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of FIG. 1 taken alongsection line 2 2;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of FIG. 1 taken alongsection line 3 3;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective representation of the sectional viewof FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective front elevational view of the corner of aStructure to which our invention has been applied to cover apertures andother portions of the structure;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of FIG. 5 taken alongsection line 6 6;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged partial sectional view of a portion of FIG. 5taken along section line 7 7;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged partial sectional view of FIG. 5 taken alongsection line 8 8; and

FIG. 9 is an enlarged partial sectional View of FIG. 5 taken alongsection line 9 9.

Referring now to the drawings in which like or similar elements areidentified by like reference characters, our invention is shown embodiedin FIGS. l, 2 and 3 as a panel frame that is disposed in aperture 11 ina building structure 10 and in FIGS. 5-9 as a panel frame that isdisposed on the surface of a building structure 10. In each of the twoembodiments presented as illustrating preferred embodiments of ourinvention, the panel frames disposed around the periphery of each of thepanels to be mounted in or on a structure are comprised of guttermembers adapted to be mounted upon the structure, face members andT-block connectors disposed intermediate and insulatedlyinterconnectedly engaging the gutter and face members. Suitable panelsare disposed intermediate sealing portions on the outer and innerportions on the gutter and face members respectively. As illustrated onthe several views of the drawings, the gutter and face members may beutilized for sills, jambs, mullions and headers to completely enclose apanel member and the T-block connectors are utilized in each of theseseveral uses of the gutter and face members.

Referring to FIGS. l, 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings, a fragmentary portionof a building structure 10 is shown having an aperture 11 which denes awindow opening in the structure. Our invention is shown disposed as aperimeter frame for supportively and sealingly engaging a pair of panelmembers 40 which are shown comprised of double insulated glass panelmembers having an inner panel 41 and an outer panel 42 which areparallelly spaced apart by a peripheral spacer member 43 and which arefurther sealingly engaged by member 44 which would also extend aroundthe entire periphery of panel 40.

In the enlarged sectional view of FIG. 2, a gutter member 20 and a facemember 70 are shown installed on the bottom of aperture 11 as a sill andare further shown interconnected by T-blocks 50 which are in turndisposed underneath and in supportive engaging relationship with thelower portion of panel 40.

In the detailed enlarged sectional drawing of FIG. 3 and the fragmentarysectional and perspective view of FIG. 4, a gutter member 20 is showndisposed as a sill and includes a bottom portion 21 having a pluralityof downwardly opening grooves 22; a connector portion shown generally byreference character 23, an inner end wall 30 and a top portion 31.Connector 23 is shown having an outer end 24 of substantially uniformthickness and an outwardly opening groove disposed therein. Proceedingtoward the inner end of connector 23, there is shown an enlarged portioncomprised of outwardly sloping or flaring portions 27 which terminate inan inwardly straight portion 28 disposed substantially perpendicularlyto connector 23, and an inner end of substantially uniform thicknessthat in turn depends from the body of gutter member 20. The outerportion of top 31 is provided with a longitudinally extending outwardlyopening groove 32 that is adapted to receive and retain a panel sealingmember 33. Gutter member 20 is shown sealingly mounted on the bottom ofaperture 11 in building structure by suitable sealing compound 34 whichmay be adhesve in nature.

A face member 70 is shown having a top portion 71 having an inwardlyopening longitudinally extending groove adapted to receive and engage asealing member 73 that is shown in sealing engagement with the outerside of panel 40. Face member 70 further includes an end wall 74 and aconnector portion 75, shown as having an inner portion 76 havingsubstantially parallel top and bottom surfaces, an outwardly slopingportion 77, an inwardly sloping portion 78 and a further outer straightportion 79 having parallel top and bottom surfaces, that dependsinwardly and substantially horizontally from end wall 74 of face member70.

Gutter member and face member 70 are shown removably interconnected by athermal T-block connector indicated generally by reference character 50.T-block connector 50 may be comprised of, for example, plastic or othermaterial possessing the necessary structural characteristics andpossessing the characteristic of low thermal conductivity. Connector 50is of generally elongated construction having a T-portion at itslefthand end in FIGS. 3 and 4 and further includes a laterally extendinggroove 53 at its inner end 52 that is shaped to be substantiallycomplementary with respect to connector 23 on gutter 20. In similarmanner, an outwardly opening laterally extending groove 59 is disposedat outer end 58 of T-block 50 and is of substantially complementaryshape with respect to connector 75 on face member 70.

In particular, groove 53 is provided with an outwardly sloping portionS4 at its outer end, a laterally outwardly extending straight portion55, an inwardly sloping portion 56 and a further inwardly disposedportion 57 having substantially parallel top and bottom surfaces. Insimilar manner, groove 59 has an inwardly sloping portion 60, anoutwardly sloping portion 61, an inwardly sloping portion 65, a straightportion 62 having substantially parallel top and bottom surfaces andoutwardly Haring portions 63 at the inner end thereof. Connector 50 isfurther provided with an upwardly extending panel engaging portion 64which extends at an inward angle toward and into engagement with panel40, and a downwardly extending portion in engagement with the adhesive34 disposed on the sill portion of aperture 11 in structure 10.

In the above discussion, connector 23 and connector 75 and thecorresponding grooves in 53 and 59, T-block 50 may also be described asasymmetrical and semi-symmetrical. The terminology employed will becomeapparent from a description of the operation of our invention set forthbelow, however, it may be noted at this point that end 52 of T-block 50provides asymmetrical or substantially permanent engagement with portion23 of gutter member 20 in that installation of T-block 50 bycomplementary engagement of groove 53 with connector 23 is substantiallya one-way connection in that once the T- block is disposed in engagementwith gutter member 20, removal thereof requires a great deal of force.Further, with respect to connector 75 on face member 70, engagementthereof with groove 59 in the outer end 58 of T- block connector 50results in a supporting engagement that may be more readily or removablydisconnected to allow removal of face member for any purpose desired.

OPERATION The installation and use of the apparatus shown in FIGS. l, 2,3 and 4 will be described only in connection with the sill portion ofthe perimeter yframe shown in FIG. 1 as the header, jamb and mullioninstallation is substantially the same. In operation, it will be assumedthat a building structure 10 is provided with a suitably shaped aperture11. The aperture 11 is to be enclosed with, for example, panels ofinsulated glass 40 and the panel frame is to be disposed around theperimeter of the panel members within the aperture 11 instead of over anaperture or over an existing surface of a structure. In effecting aninstallation, the periphery of aperture 11 is coated with a suitablesealing adhesive type material and gutter members, such as 20, areattached to the inner periphery of aperture 11 over the adhesive sealingmaterial through the use of suitable fasteners (not shown) which mighttake the form of screws extending through bottom portion 21 of guttermember 20 into structure 10. At the time a continuous gutter member hasbeen installed completely around the inner periphery of aperture 11 andthe gutter member of the mullion shown thereon has been suitablyattached to the inside edges of the jam'b gutter members, a plurality ofspaced apart T-block connectors 50 are disposed on connector 23 ongutter member 20. Installation is effected by simply pushing T-blockconnectors 50 on to connector 23 into the position shown in FIGS. 3 and4. It may be noted at this point that it is preferable to initiallyinstall the T-block connectors 50 on the sill portions only, after whichthe panel 40 may be suitably disposed in engagement with sealing member33 on gutter members 20 and panel engaging portion 64 near the outer endof T-block connectors 50. Following this, the T-'block connectors may bedisposed on any headers, mullions and jambs to retain the panel in thedesired position. Face members 70 may then be easily installed in thedisposition shown with sealing portion 73 in sealing engagement withpanel 40 and connector 75 in operative engagement with the lateralgroove 59 in the outer end of T-block connector 50.

Referring now to FIGS. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, our invention is shown embodiedin an installation which is disposed on the exterior of a structure 10as distinguished from the embodiment described above. Referring to FIG.5 of the drawing, there is shown a corner of a structure 10 that issubstantially enclosed and covered by a plurality of panels 12 which aresupported and held in place on the exterior of the structure through theuse of gutter members, face members and T-block connectors embodying theprinciples of our invention. While there is shown a sill, header andjamb configuration which surrounds the perimeter of the panels installedon the structure, it will be apparent from a consideration of theabove-noted figures of the drawings that the perimeter framing is notdisposed within an aperture, such as aperture 11 on FIG. 1 of thedrawings.

Referring again to FIG. 5, it may be appreciated by those skilled in theart that panels 12 may be in part, or

in toto opaque or transparent depending upon the desires of thearchitect or designer insofar as modifying the appearance and improvingthe utilitarian aspects of any given structure, such as structure 10.The several elements in the composite structure shown in FIG. 5 areindicated generally as a header element 90, a sill element 91, jambelements 92, and rmullion elements 93 all of which combine tosimultaneously engage and support ythe individual panel elements 12 onthe surface of structure 10.

Referring specifically to FIG. 6, a cross-sectional View' taken alongsection line 6-6 of FIG. 5 of the drawings includes a header gutter 84,a pair of mullion lgutters 82 and a sill gutter20, each of which issecurely fastened to the outer face of structure through suitable.fastening means, for example, screw threaded bolts or the like. A likenumber of face elements, illustrated as header face 85, mullion faces 83and sill face 70 are shown removably connected to the respective gutterelements through T-block thermal connector members 50 which ared'isposed in the relative position shown for supportively engaging panelmembers 12 and the indicated face members. Further shown on FIG. 6 are ajamb gutter and face 80 and 81 respectively which may be suitablyattached to and in engagement with the header, mullion and sill elementsnoted above.

Referring specifically to FIG. 7 of the drawings, an enlarged sectionalview taken along section line 7-7 on FIG. 5 of the drawing illustratesthe respective configuration and relationship of a jamb gutter 80, ajamb face 81, a T-block connector 50 and a pair of panels 12 in anillustrative embodiment for a corner jamb, column or post. FIGS. 8 and 9illustrate the respective configurations and relationship of elementsfor gutter, face and T-block connectors in connection with a mullion andsill element respectively.

As may be seen in, for example, FIGS. 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9, longitudinallyelongated connector members 23 extend laterally outwardly of the guttermembers from which they depend. In all illustrations, the outermost endextends at least partially past the inner face of the panel member, thuseiectively presenting a barrier that is substantially impervious to theflow of liquid therethrough.

Having now therefore fully illustrated and described our invention,whatwe claim to be new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In apparatus of the class above described, the combination,comprising; at least one longitudinally elongated gutter member; a likenumber of longitudinally elongated face members, each of said membersbeing dimensioned to be disposed in spaced apart relationship upon astructure and each of said members having a 1ongitudinally elongatedportion extending toward the other of said members in generally lateralregistration therebetween, said gutter member being disposed toward theinterior of said structure and including a continuous laterallyextending lower portion adapted to lbe dispose-d to extend toward theexterior of the structure underneath longitudinally elongated portionthereof; a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart thermal connectormembers, each of said thermal connector members having a iirst end forpermanently, engaging and mounting the same upon the longitudinallyelongated portion of said gutter member, and a second end for removablyreceiving and supportively engaging the longitudinally elongated portionof said face members; and means mounting said gutter member upon saidstructure whereby said face member is removably disposed and mounted inlaterally spaced apart relationship with respect to said gutter memberand a panel member may be removably secured therebetween.

2. In apparatus of the class above described, the combination,comprising; at least one longitudinally elongated gutter member; a likenumber of longitudinally elongated face members, said members adapted tobe disposed in spaced apart relationship upon a structure whereby a.panel member may be removably secured therebetween and each of saidmembers having a longitudinally elongated portion extending toward theother of said members in generally lateral registration therebetween,said gutter member being disposed toward the interior of said structureand the longitudinally elongated portion thereon extending toward saidface member under at least a portion of said panel member so as topresent a continuous lateral cross section adapted to prevent the flowof liquid therethrough when disposed upon a structure; a plurality ofthermal connector members, each of said thermal connector members havinga lirst end for permanently engaging and mounting the same upon thelongitudinally elongated portion of said gutter member, and a second endfor removably receiving and supportively engaging the longitudinallyelongated portion of said face member, said connector members beingdisposed in longitudinal spaced apart relationship intermediate saidgutter and face members; and means mounting said gutter member upon saidstructure whereby said face member is removably disposed and mounted inlaterally spaced apart relationship with respect to said gutter member-so that said panel member may be removably secured therebetween.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the gutter member further includesmeans for engaging a panel, said means being disposed inwardly of theend of the longitudinally elongated portion thereof.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 in which the first end of the thermalconnector member and the longitudinally elongated portion on the guttermember are of complementary shape.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the thermal connector membersinclude a panel engaging surface extending upwardly and inwardly of thesecond end of the thermal connector members.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the rst end of the thermalconnector member and the longitudinally elongated portion on the guttermember are of complementary shape.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the thermal connector membersinclude a panel engaging surface extending upwardly and inwardly of thesecond end of the thermal connector members.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the gutter member further includesmeans for engaging a panel, said means being disposed inwardly of theend of the longitudinally elongated portion thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,835,360 5/1958 Bernardoni etal. 52--403 2,933,779 4/ 1960 Delaloche 52-403 X 3,016,993 1/1962 Owen52--397 3,093,217 6/1963 Doede 52-397 X 3,191,727 6/ 1965 Schmeltz etal. 52-40'3 3,242,625 3/ 1966 Tillinghast 52-461 3,393,487 7/1968 Nolan52-403 3,403,490 10/ 1968 Luedtke 49-504 X 3,308,588 3/1967 Von Wedel52-402 X PRICE C. FAW, JR., Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. XJR.

